A method is provided in one example embodiment and includes configuring a network element for load balancing based on input provided by a mobile gateway, where the configuring includes selecting an instance of a service flow router control function (SFR-C) at the network element based on an Internet protocol (IP) address assigned to a subscriber. The subscriber flow rules can be provided to a service flow user plane of the network element. The configuring may also include selecting a subscriber service proxy (SSP) based on a particular load balancing criterion, where a forwarding plane of the network element is configured based on the subscriber flow rules, and where a return message is communicated to the SFR-C that includes a particular IP address of the selected SSP.